Wemo link for remote powerup/down device

spopiela

I was upset and aggravated the first time that my router wouldn't respond when I was remote via WAN. If a power transient happens or the router can't get back in step with the modem after power comes up, you are out of business. Modem has to settle down first, then router, then rest of the clients on the router. I have many items including weatherstations, cameras etc. The only way to recorrect is to reset the router. I probably don't need the hotspot but a device that can't ping the internet from the home base knows that power is on and there is no internet so it resets the router should do the job! Stan

Varistor

Get a SMS switch that you can control via simple text messages or just by calling it from your phone. Works great.

KY6LA_Howard

@spopiela

The Datalogger Web Switch has an auto ping and scripting facility.

When my internet fails, it reboots the modem first, the follows the script to reboot the other devices in the correct sequence and timing.

The primary path is a Cable Modem 350Mb/s x 30Mb/s

Still have a second Internet path through a 4G Hotspot and have double homed my LAN so that there is an alternative path to the Internet

I found that when running remote you must try to eliminate all possible single points of failure..with the Internet connections being a primary source of such failures.

spopiela

So I use phone cell signal to reset a router when I can't connect to my home via WAN?

Varistor

Yes, this is correct. You should assume that there will be times when you cannot reach the router for whatever reason and you need to reboot it.

James Madden

The devices shown do not appear to have the relay needed for the rca jack remote on/off. Or am I missing something?

spopiela

You need to attach a relay that  opens or closes with 115v power to the coil of the relay. I use http://www.digital-loggers.com/ac.html. The relay power cord connects to the a/c wall switch that you control over your wifi. This relay will be open with no power and then closes if the switch is turned on. You must select the normally open contacts. connect the relay connects to the rca connection on the back of the radio.
Stan

James Madden

Thanks very much

Chuck - W9WLX

What iOS apps work well with the ip2cc?

Larry _ NY8T

The app I use is roomie simple home.

W9WLX_Chuck

Howard, I've had a chance to play with the Digital Logger Webswitch and I like it!  Question I have is control of it from the WAN.  If I put the Webswitch in my DMZ, I have no issue accessing it.  If I put it behind my router firewall, and enable port forwarding, I cannot access it.  I tried forwarding all ports, 1-65535, and still no go.  I tested the port forwarding and it was working.  Turning off the firewall did not enable access either, with and without port forwarding. 

I was using the iOS app, Remote Outlet and tried Browser access--even tried including the port number in the URL.  Both worked when the device was in the DMZ and failed otherwise.  Any ideas?

The router is Spectrum/Time Warner hardware, Arris, TG862G.  Since it is also the  landline phone interface, I'm left with little choice but to deal with it.

Chuck, W9WLX

KY6LA_Howard

@Chuck I also have Spectrum but I put a 1GHz cable splitter feeding on side the the Spectrum landline Modem and the other side to my own DOCIS 3 Arris Modem and my own ASUS Router It saves about $10/month for Cable Modem Rental which quickly paid the $90 cost of the modem from Amazon but more important gave me complete control of my Internet connections BY FCC rules Spectrum has to let u use your own modem

KY6LA_Howard

https://smile.amazon.com/ARRIS-SURFboard-SB6190-Certified-Cablevision/dp/B016PE1X5K/ref=pd_sbs_147_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B016PE1X5K&pd_rd_r=S55CZAP0YTV4YYH3KCAV&pd_rd_w=sKxkn&pd_rd_wg=3jN6M&psc=1&refRID=S55CZAP0YTV4YYH3KCAV

KY6LA_Howard

Which GSM switch do you use.? I have yet to find one that does not have a monthly cell phone charge

W9WLX_Chuck

Thanks.  If there is nothing I overlooked, I'll have to go that route.

You must have had good luck with the ASUS router being radio-friendly.  I've had problems with RF getting into Netgear and Linksys routers and losing connectivity.

Varistor

I use an older model and am consider getting one of the new ones as they have an iOS app.

Yes, they all require a SIM card. I use a prepaid Rogers card and pay no monthly fees.

Mark_WS7M

I use the digital loggers A/C power switch device in Howard's post.  I simply have the remote on terminal on the back of the flex shorted.  No relay.

I just have the digital logger cycle power to the 12V supply and everything reboots nicely.  Makes it a little easier since you don't need a relay in addition to some kind of power switch.  Do the job with one thing.

For a while I had a battery backup to my DC power supply but found the batteries were going bad.  So I took that out of the loop.  With battery backup you still will need some way to toggle the remote on port of the radio.

However one time my Flex hung.  Toggling remote on did not restart it.  That is when I redesigned things to cycle the D/C power.

Mark_WS7M

The absolute best way in my opinion to control the digital loggers from WAN is to setup a VPN.  You can do this very inexpensively with a small Raspberry Pi or if your router supports VPN you can probably do it that way.

This way you connect your VPN, then like you were on your LAN log into your digital logger device and control what you need.

That being said it is possible to expose the digital logger device on the WAN.  You simply need to set a static LAN IP and a custom port on it in the setup and then in your router port forward the custom port to the digital logger static LAN IP address.

Works just fine.  But now your digital logger will likely start to get hammered by the far east in attempts to break in so choose a VERY GOOD password.

I use both ways.  I have a Raspberry Pi VPN and I also have my loggers exposed on some ports AND I have complex passwords I change regularly.

W9WLX_Chuck

Thanks Mark, that was the issue.  I was using the default http port, port 80.  I changed it to a unique port, forwarded that one, and I can connect successfully and reliably.  

Good suggestions about router or Pi VPN.  I'll keep that in mind and look into it in the near future.

John WA7UAR

Hi Mark, if it's ever convenient sometime for you, I'd appreciate seeing a photo(s) of your digital logger setup and the connections you use to power cycle everything nicely. Thanks!

WG5D

Worth noting - I am using a Raspberry Pi 3 to control the power to the radio remotely. It was pretty easy to set up, and the GPIO levels are compatible with the radio. In a nutshell, the Pi is running the Apache web server and that provides a web interface that is used to turn the radio on and off remotely. Nothing more needed than the Pi to control the Flex. As an added bonus I have a scrolling display on the Pi that shows NTP synchronized time (UTC) so it looks cool too

Mark_WS7M

Hi Phil, Would you be willing to share your web code that does this?  I would like to go that route for controlling not only the flex on/off but also an amp.

Let me know:  ws7m@arrl.net

WG5D

Certainly - I can back up the SD card and make an image of it and post it online for anyone that wants it. Considering how many GPIO ports the Pi has, you can control a lot of stuff with it

You should be able to modify the code easily to add additional devices, it is written in Python and HTML, both are easy to work with. I should mention that currently there is no authentication required to get the the web page so if you connect or route directly to the Pi from the Internet, you might want to add an authentication mechanism as well or anyone on the interwebs could control your radio. With my setup, I either VPN to my home network to get to the web interface or use TeamViewer to access my home computer and control the Pi (and the radio) from there.

Once I get the image created and uploaded, I will post a link for it. 

Steve - N4TTY

Why not post the php and HTML instead of an entire image. I'm sure there are others that have multiple RasPi that don't need an entire image.

Mark_WS7M

I would be glad to but it's really pretty simple:

At back of flex radio just short the "Remote On".  I used a cut off phono connector and just soldered outer and inner wires together with heat shrink.  I leave that plugged in all the time.

I have an Astron 12V 35A DC supply for the radio.  I just plug the A/C cord for that into one of the outlets on the Digital Logger.   Using the Web Interface on the digital logger you can turn that outlet on/off.  Doing do will cause the power to fail to the radio and it will turn off.

Reapplying the power will cause the radio to auto-start since the remote plug is shorted.

While I am never a fan of killing power there are times you have to do it and quite frankly I've not had to do this to my radio but twice and I leave it on all the time.

If you want to go a step further you can do exactly what I mention above but also purchase one of their din power relays:  https://dlidirect.com/products/din-relay-iv
and wire one of the relays to your remote on/off on the FlexRadio.

With this setup you can first try toggling the relay to reset the radio.  Wait a bit and see what happens.  If that doesn't work then reset the power using the A/C digital logger.

A note of caution:  I purchased the DIN relay a while back and found it generated noise.  Another ham here in the Flex Forum saw the same thing so I stopped using it.  There are some internal mods you can make to clean it up.  But I went to the power cycle idea above.

Once you decide how you are going to go you have two options for remote control.   Over your LAN it will work just fine.  You just need to know/set the IP address of the device.  But when you setup the digital loggers you can give them a static IP on your LAN and also a port number to work on.  When you do this you change your HTTP requests to go to that custom port.

This opens up the ability to port forward this port through your router so you can connect in from the WAN.   So in my case it works like this:

My request is like this on my LAN to turn on outlet 2:

http://admin:password@192.168.0.100:8086/outlet?2=ON 

Notice I pass the username:password in.  Since I port forward 8086 through my router I can do:

http://admin:password@ws7m.net:8086/outlet?2=ON 

ws7m.net resolves to my home IP WAN address.

A safer alternative is to setup a VPN so that before any outlet or relay control you have to connect to your VPN.  Then your commands all look like local LAN commands.

Let me know if you need more or photos.  Glad to help.

John WA7UAR

Very clear Mark! Thank you for this description. I had not thought of simply keeping the "remote on" phono connector permanently shorted. I understand now why you would do that if your plan is to have an emergency power toggle option using a plug on your web accessible data logger. Appreciate your explanation!

WG5D

I did just that for Mark, WS7M as he already has a Pi running a web server. Let's see how that goes  

There is some html, some php, and a Python 3 program that makes it all work. Sounds complex, but it is really quite easy if you know the Pi.

I will be glad to share the code - email me direct. Info is on QRZ. 

KY6LA_Howard

I do both. One port on my digital logger for remote power on/off and oneport for main power for the Flex It gives me the option of both hard and soft resets for my 6700 I have just added a port fort PTT as well so I can remotely register and de register SmartLink

spopiela

Howard, where do you connect the relay for PTT? Stan

David Decoons, wo2x

Either the PTT RCA jack or PTT & Ground in Accy jack on back of radio. That way you can That way you can remote desktop into a PC on local radio LAN and be able to toggle PTT when setting up SmartLink remotely.

You will need this if changing the SmartLink account when you are remote from the shack as you need to provide a local PTT when registering radio.

Dave wo2x